PIAA Girls Swimming: Cullen’s three swims yield two bronzes on busy night

LEWISBURG — The routine for Casey Cullen at the PIAA Class 3A Championships was pretty tightly scheduled Wednesday.

First was the final of the 200 freestyle. Then a quick high-five for coach Jeremy Byrne, 10 minutes of warm down, podium, back in for about five minutes of warm up, then the final of the 100 fly. Then maybe two laps to clear the lactic acid for the 200 free relay.

The Radnor sophomore knew it would be jam-packed. What she didn’t know was that it would come with a pair of bronze medals.

Cullen turned in tremendous swims to nab third-place finishes, then helped the Radnor 200 free relay twice set the school record on the way to 14th place.

“It’s great,” Cullen said. “It’s an awesome feeling. I wasn’t expecting it.”

Cullen entered the 200 free as the 10th seed. She was seventh in prelims, a drop of a third of a second to 1:51.97. In a crazy final, she brought the outside smoke in lane 1 and lopped another second clean off to be the first of four swimmers within .05 seconds in 1:50.92.

“Freestyle, I don’t take it out as fast,” Cullen said. “I know I’m a little behind, but I just try to be patient and don’t panic and then at the end, give it all I have and encourage myself. … I saw third and I was like, oh my gosh.”

Also in that group was Sun Valley’s Keeley Durkin, who tied for fifth out of Lane 8 in 1:50.97, lowering her personal-best. Strath Haven’s Sydney Bergstrom, who had a sluggish morning to land in the B final, sped up to 1:50.95 for 10th place.

After peeling herself out of the pool. Cullen had her specialty, the 100 fly. She was sixth in prelims but sped up to 55.28 in the final to tie Avon Grove’s Sydney Paglia for third.

With a boost from her teammates, she summoned the energy to split 24.23 as Radnor went 1:37.57 in finals.

By the time Cullen was done, finally squeezing in pictures, the worst for wear was her voice. (When she had time to lose it is anyone’s guess.) But it was a small price to pay.

“I think all the training, it made me be able to do all those events in one day,” Cullen said. “I am tired, but not that bad.”

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The podiums, medals and pump-up music all happen at night at states.

But medals are won during the morning. Durkin knew that going into the 200 free.

She set down a personal-best time of 1:51.99 in prelims, then the Sun Valley senior sweated out the final heat to see if it would stand up. By .34 seconds, she made the A final, where she landed fifth.

Before she got back in the pool to cool down and conference with coach Kate Doroshenko, she knew she’d achieved a goal.

“I knew right away,” Durkin said in the morning. “I looked up and my parents were like, ‘Yes, this is what you trained for.’ I was looking, waiting, the fourth heat, I was like, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon. And I knew.”

One of the last dominoes to fall was Cullen, who went 1:51.97 to get the seventh spot. Durkin was fifth with one heat left and could only afford to be beaten by three in the last heat. When the fourth swimmer touched outside her time, it was a moment to celebrate.

“It feels amazing,” Durkin said. “This is what I train for every day. I’m super excited and I’m ready for the 500 tomorrow.”

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Haverford freshman Katya Eruslanova netted a medal in her first states trip, fourth in the 200 individual medley. It’s a school record of 2:02.68, nearly two seconds faster than prelims. That event featured a tie for first place between Muhlenberg’s Cameron Gring and Torie Buerger of North Allegheny in 1:59.50.

Also earning a medal was Garnet Valley’s Catherine Weaverling, who was eighth in the 100 fly in 56.05.